South Waziristan has a population of about 500,000. It is estimated to have 10,000 armed religious extremists, of whom about 1500 are foreigners, mostly dissident Uzbeks from secular Uzbekistan just north of Afghanistan.

Pakistani officials allege that 80% of the terrorism in Pakistan emanates from militants based in South Waziristan.

The USG Open Source Center translates an interview at the GEO Urdu-language satellite news station. This paragraph comparing the new operation to that in Swat last spring struck me as scary: “Not only that the resistance here would be much stronger than that in Swat but also the Taliban will mainly retaliate in the other parts of the country. Secondly, the Swat Taliban did not have many routes to flee the area nor was Swat located near the Afghan border from where they could receive reinforcement or where they could flee.” Here is the rest:

Now we will discuss Waziristan operation. We have senior analyst Salim Safi with us on telephone line:

(Begin live relay) (anchorperson Gharida Faruqi) Mr Safi, the Swat operation was very successful and was completed in a short time but certain circles are expressing doubts about Waziristan operation. You are one of them. You have also written a //column// in today’s Jang. Why are you opposing this operation?

(Safi) Gharida, in fact, I believe that unless certain other aspects of this issue are resolved we will probably not be able to achieve the desired results only by launching an operation in South Waziristan. Not only that the resistance here would be much stronger than that in Swat but also the Taliban will mainly retaliate in the other parts of the country. Secondly, the Swat Taliban did not have many routes to flee the area nor was Swat located near the Afghan border from where they could receive reinforcement or where they could flee But you can see that foreigners are present in South Waziristan. Foreigners are also there in Ahmadzai Wazir area.

The operation is not going on in North Waziristan but you see that on the very first day a retaliatory action was taken there. The other thing is that during this time….(pauses) Though the government has made full preparations this time and it seems that in this operation the forces will show greater seriousness than the previous operations and aerial and land power will also be used extensively. But on the other hand the Taliban have also made full preparations in that area and then they have //sleeper cells// in different parts of the country who have sent their activists in different areas and especially the banned organizations… (interrupted)

(Faruqi) Mr Safi, you are talking about the preparation of the Taliban and you said that this time a stronger resistance might be faced. What type of greater resistance? What type of greater preparation?

(Safi) In fact, during the past two or three years when operations were initially launched in Waziristan there were only local Taliban or Arab, Uzbek or Chechen militants with were there them. But during the past three-four years this development has taken place that the Taliban have established links with the banned organizations of Pakistan — some jihadi and sectarian outfits. Leadership of most of these organizations is either in their hands or the Al-Qa’ida is providing //coordination// among these groups. So, now trained people from those outfits are present in every nook and corner of the country. As we have seen in the past week mostly these were the elements active in the attack on the GHQ and in the attacks in Lahore.

(Faruqi) Thank you very much, Salim Safi, for talking to Geo News. (end of live relay)

(Description of Source: Karachi Geo News TV in Urdu — 24-hour satellite news TV channel owned by Pakistan’s Jang publishing group, broadcast from Dubayy. Known for providing quick and detailed reports of events. Programs include some Indian shows and dramas which the group claims are aimed at promoting people-to-people contact and friendly relations with India.) ‘

2 Responses

concetta

Here's a possibility – we have more money than the Taliban. How about we use it to buy spies from among the locals Pakistan to let us know what is happening there. We could take a step back and do waitful watching, as VP Biden suggests. We should also realize that events in this part of the world will not always go the way we would prefer them to play out. Seems like we're getting all excited and just playing into the terror industrial complex that Colin Powell has been warning us about.

Billy Glad

Dr. Cole. How important is the Sunni resistance in Iran that's in the news this morning? I've been following the Taliban, but missed that angle of the Sunni/Shia conflict. First time I saw the headline, I thought the suicide bomber had killed Iraqis.

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